Founding Designer
Location: Remote (Preference for New York)
Reports to: President and Chief Product Officer
About Astera Holdings: Astera Holdings is a quantitative finance firm on a mission to redefine prediction markets—an emerging category of financial markets where people trade on the outcomes of real‑world events. Our three pillars form the Astera Flywheel: each generates proprietary data that feeds our central Astera Intelligence Engine, compounding our edge over time. Our culture is a Meritocracy of Minds, built on Radical Intellectual Honesty, a Scientific Approach to Everything, and Lean Intensity.
The Role:
We are seeking our Founding Designer, a world-class talent from a top-tier company who will own the entire design vision for Astera Holdings. This is a 0→1 role for a true "super IC"—a master of visual craft who also codes, who will single-handedly define and build the user experience for all our products, services, and web properties. You are a relentless, hard-working builder who is obsessed with leveraging the latest AI tools to create the most innovative and beautiful products imaginable. This is not a management role; it is a pure, hands-on building role with founder-level impact and ownership.
What You’ll Do
- Define the Astera Experience: Own and execute the end-to-end design vision for the company, from our brand identity and website to the intricate UI/UX of our consumer and institutional platforms.
- Design & Build: Personally design and code visually stunning, unique, and highly functional web experiences. You will be responsible for both the pixels and the implementation.
- AI-Native Creative Workflow: Master and integrate a suite of AI tools (e.g., Midjourney, Sora, Firefly) into every stage of your process—from concept and mood boarding to asset generation and prototyping—to produce world-class work at unprecedented speed.
- Build the Design System: Create and maintain a scalable, world-class design system in Figma that will serve as the foundation for all future product development.
- Cross-Functional Execution: Act as the design authority, working in a tight, high-intensity loop with product, engineering, and leadership to bring a cohesive and exceptional user experience to life.
What You’ll Bring
- A World-Class Portfolio: Demonstrable experience shipping beautiful, high-quality products at a top tech or design-led company. Your portfolio is your resume.
- The Designer Who Codes: You are an expert in both visual design and front-end development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a modern framework like Svelte or React). You don't just design; you build.
- AI-Powered Visionary: You are a power user of generative AI tools and can show how you use them to create better products, faster. This is non-negotiable.
- Relentless Work Ethic: You are a "24/7 builder" with an obsessive focus on detail, quality, and execution speed. You are hungry to build something great from the ground up.
- First-Principles Thinking: You can break down complex problems and create simple, elegant solutions that are both beautiful and intuitive.
- Figma Mastery: Deep, demonstrable fluency in Figma for building design systems, prototyping, and collaboration.
Nice to Have
- A passion for data visualization, FinTech, or sports.
- Experience creating motion graphics and intricate micro-interactions.
- A background in building products for data-intensive or highly technical domains.
How We Hire
- Intro Call & Portfolio Review (30m): A deep dive into your work and a discussion of your design philosophy and use of AI.
- Product & Technical Deep Dive (60m): A detailed conversation about a complex product you've designed and built.
- Design & Code Challenge (Take-Home): A practical project to showcase your end-to-end design and front-end skills.
- Values & Vision (45m): Final conversation with the Leadership Team on culture, long-term vision, and your impact as our Founding Designer.
Why Astera
- Define a Category: Be the sole design mind behind a new class of financial products.
- Total Ownership: Own the entire brand and product design experience from day one, with founder-level autonomy.
- Elite Peers: Collaborate with a small, intense team of world-class engineers and researchers who are the best at what they do.
